Good areas within commuting distance to London?

Ellejmorgan

I love some of the areas that are being suggested..

Radlett & Henley on Thames no less..
OP did you win the lottery ???

Tropez

Ellejmorgan wrote: »

I love some of the areas that are being suggested..

Radlett & Henley on Thames no less..
OP did you win the lottery ???

Henley on Thames didn't seem too bad price wise. There were 4/5 bedroom detached houses on reasonable sized plots available there for less than £750k but so far it has been lacking on the old high speed net front. Not necessarily saying I would want to spend that much though, just seemed reasonable enough for the area and whatnot.

And of course, I don't know if those houses were next to some sort of pneumatic drill testing centre.

Alas, no lottery win for me, yet.

adelight

Tropez wrote: »

I assume the change at Birmingham is Snow Hill to New Street? That's easy enough on the whole. I don't think I've used the other station in Birmingham (is it Moor Street?).

More areas for the list! Much appreciated.

It actually stops at both Moor Street and Snow Hill so the choice is yours.

Bricket Wood and most of the areas along that line are okay but the train to Watford is once every 45-60 minutes. Getting to Crewe/B'ham is slow (3-4hr) as you have to get the slow train from Watford or change at Bletchley/MK (~3hr). But you could just drive and park at another station.

I was going to suggest Berkhamstead/Tring but thought against it because of the journey... I forgot that you don't have to get the MK-Clapham/Croydon train (avoid at all costs! busy, irregular, delayed) and it's actually quite a simple journey The train to B'ham/Crewe doesn't stop there often, you generally have to change at Bletchley/MK but that's very simple.
Berkhamstead cinema is lovely I agree. The same price gets you a comfy seat and glass of wine there or a sticky chair, flat coke and noisy chavs in the rest of London.
Hemel isn't very nice imo, there are a few nice areas but mostly it's not great.

[Deleted User]

adelight wrote: »

Bricket Wood and most of the areas along that line are okay but the train to Watford is once every 45-60 minutes. Getting to Crewe/B'ham is slow (3-4hr) as you have to get the slow train from Watford or change at Bletchley/MK (~3hr). But you could just drive and park at another station.

Bricket Wood - You can get to Radlett very quickly (about 5-8 mins drive) and the train into london is very frequent. A taxi from my house to Radlett station is £7 (I have the benefit of work paying for my tain travel..)

Looking on national rail enquiries, it takes about 70 mins to get from Watford to Birmingham, so I could get from Bricket Wood to Central station in 1hr 21m - 1hr 45m ish.

I didn't see what your budget/requirements are... i'd work around that first!

Radlett is very nice; Shenley is just up the road from it and is very 'villagy' but cheaper. If you've got Radlett money, there's also Elstree (which is also on the thameslink into london AND you can use an oyster card there). Bushey is nice too

catkins

shirlgirl2004 wrote: »

That's because Braintree and Colchester aren't very nice areas. That's the same in all counties surely? The rougher areas have cheaper housing.

Harlow is another awful area. Essex has some lovely villages and even some decent towns like Chelmsford but it also has a fair number of places I wouldn't want to live.

I think Colchester is quite nice and Braintree is not bad.

I would not live in Basildon, Harlow or Witham but that's about it

catkins

Ellejmorgan wrote: »

A lot of Colchester is rough always has been town side is ok but some of the outer areas are terrible two estates in particular...

I don't think Colchester is any cheaper than Chelmsford, my old bedsit on the Harwich RD cost £65 per week and that was in 1994..

Renting and buying are definitely cheaper in Colchester than Chelmsford. For the price of a 3 bed terraced or maybe semi in Chelmsford you can get a 4 bed detached in Colchester

cottonhead

Prague - easy jet do very cheaps flights.........

flea72

Ellejmorgan wrote: »

A lot of Colchester is rough always has been town side is ok but some of the outer areas are terrible two estates in particular...

I don't think Colchester is any cheaper than Chelmsford, my old bedsit on the Harwich RD cost £65 per week and that was in 1994..

seeing as Harwich Road is slap bang in the middle of the two terrible estates, its no wonder you found colchester rough. however rents in that area are now ITR of £120-£150 week.

however i dont think the OP wants to live in the town centre or estates, they want leafy suburbia, so Lexden

like for like, chelmsford is about 15-20% more expensive than colchester when buying. however, renting there is not much difference in price

F

tesuhoha

Letchworth is rather nice. We used to live there. Or closer to London but more expensive, Welwyn Garden City.

adea

Stevenage isn't too bad. Close to the A10 and A1/M plus trains directly to London. A lot of the town is on Virgin Media and there is a good selection of shops. Also, you can get to Cambridge by train very easily.